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Fantasy Date
The daughter of a Congresswoman is raped and murdered in her home and the investigation reveals that a sex ad she placed online may have lead her attacker to her. The Victim *Carla Simmons The Suspects *Brett Harlan, the victim's ex-boyfriend *Andrew Gage, respondent to the victim's ad *Jeffrey, fraternity member Evidence Closing the Case Brenda's Story Guest Cast * Meredith Baxter (Congresswoman Simmons) * Graham Shiels (Andrew Lyle Gage) * Reynaldo Rosales (Brett Harlan) * Rick D. Wasserman (Larry Fine) * Patrick Renna (Jeffrey) * Cynthia Sophiea (Jeffrey's Mother) * David Kaufman (David Jones) * Stephanie Nash (Mrs. Jones) * Randy Wayne (Corey Horowitz) * Donzaleigh Abernathy (Mistress of Ceremonies) * Paul Ambrus (Uniform Officer) Locations Episode Notes * In his TVGuide.com blog, James Duff indicates each season has an overarching theme that serves as subtext for many of the episodes. For season one, that theme was the woman alone, trying to negotiate a man's world. As the theme emerges in the first episodes, we see Brenda as a woman struggling for credibility and respect in a law-enforcement system dominated by men, battling their beliefs and their prejudices toward women in general, and her in particular. In the episodes that follow, the applications of the theme begins to broaden to explore both how women are never fully able to separate from their sexual identities in the eyes of men, the assumptions that result, and how men exploit women sexually. Now, Brenda experiences what is perhaps a woman's greatest fear: sexual violence. It's the first time we see Brenda truly vulnerable, and even as she throws off the effects of experience and continues her investigation, her interaction with Fritz shows us the damage done to her. * Although we know Lt. Tao is formerly an SID investigator, SID has played a background role until this episode, when Pope discusses the role of SID (Scientific Investigative Division) with Brenda in the context of the victim's apartment. Although briefly mentioned in one or two previous episodes, this is the first time we have some sense of what the LAPD SID does. SID is broken into three branches: the Criminalistics Lab, the Technical Lab, and the Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab (formally named the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.) Unlike the fictional CSI, SID is charged with a wide range of tasks from gathering and preserving evidence, to development of composite drawings, to audio/video surveillance, to analysis of controlled substances. * The Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab is interesting in its own right, collaboratively housing the LAPD SID, the LA County Sheriff's Department Scientific Services Bureau, and the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminalistics at California State University, Los Angeles, on whose campus it is located. Students in criminalistics and criminal justice study and work alongside professionals from the two law enforcement agencies, whose personnel teach in the program as well. Trivia * The scene at the beginning of the episode where the Congresswoman is making her speech was filmed at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the LA Biltmore has a long and storied history connected to the development of the motion picture industry. Famously, it was at a banquet held at the hotel in May, 1927 that the design for the Oscar was sketched on a napkin (still displayed at the hotel,) and the hotel was the site of the Academy Awards a number of times between 1931 and 1942. The hotel is frequently used in film and television productions, and its elaborate Spanish/Italian Rennaissance architecture lends itself to a wide range of situations. Episode Media Category:The Closer Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes